Tiger Woods: five celebrity text scandals

The gossip website RadarOnline.com claims to have obtained provocative text
messages exchanged between Tiger Woods and cocktail waitress, Jaimee Grubbs.
If they are genuine, Woods would not be the first celebrity to be caught out
by SMS records.

1) The Australian spin bowler Shane Warne made a rare slip of the finger in 2007 when he sent a flirtatious text message – "Hey beautiful, I'm just talking to my kids, the back door's open" – to his former wife. Simone Callahan guessed she was not the intended recipient because Warne was living 8,000 miles away at the time, and leaked the text to the press as evidence of Warne's infidelities. The cricket legend released a statement insisting he was not in a relationship with Miss Callahan when the message was sent, but has never disclosed the identity of "beautiful".

2) The argument that led to Chris Brown assaulting his girlfriend Rihanna began with a stray text. The R'n'B singer claimed that Brown received a message from a mystery woman while the couple were driving away from a pre-Grammy awards party. "I caught him in a lie, and he wouldn't tell the truth. And I wouldn't drop it," Rihanna said later.

3) John Ensign, the Republican senator for Nevada, was forced to admit that he was having an affair with the wife of his chief-of-staff Doug Hampton when his employee discovered a breathless text from the politician on her phone – "How wonderful it is. ... Scared, but excited". But Sen Ensign did not learn his lesson. Months later Mr Hampton discovered the affair had not ended when he asked to borrow his boss' mobile only to find that his wife's name was listed under the plausibly frumpy alias "Aunt Judy".

4) The brevity of text messages can mask their intended meanings, as John Baird, the Canadian transport minister, found out. A SMS he sent alerting friends to the death of his elderly cat Thatcher was misconstrued by aides to Stephen Harper, who informed the Canadian prime minister that the 84-year-old former British PM had passed away. The rumour spread among guests at a black tie function in Toronto, prompting calls of condolence from Canadian officials to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.

5) Finland has a fine reputation for developing mobile phone technology – Nokia is the largest employer – so it is only fitting that the Scandinavian country should have its own text message scandal. Ilkka Kanerva, the foreign minister, reportedly sent around 200 blue texts to a 29-year-old nude dancer Johanna Tukiainen, including some messages suggesting a threesome with her sister. To Mr Kanerva's horror some of the messages were later published in a Finnish tabloid, although his poll ratings actually increased as a result.